Down On the Drag/Live Shots

Adapter: Joe Ely.
Personnel: Joe Ely (vocals, electric guitar); Carlene Carter (vocals); Peter West (bass voice); Lloyd Maines (slide guitar, steel guitar, background vocals); Ponty Bone (accordion); Ed Vizard (saxophone); Mick Gallagher, Reese Wynans (keyboards); Steve Keeton, Robert Marquam (drums); Gregg Wright (background vocals).
Liner Note Author: John Tobler.
Recording information: Kaye Smith Studios, Seattle, WA; London, England.
Photographers: Pete Vernon; Jim Shea.
Arranger: Joe Ely.
Great Britain's stellar reissue label Beat Goes On does an excellent job on this grand two-fer featuring thoroughly remastered versions of two of Joe Ely's finest offerings. The first half, 1979's Down On the Drag, was among Ely's most underrated at the time, but remains among the most enduring in his catalog. There are four stellar Butch Hancock numbers, including "Standing at the Big Hotel," "Fools Fall in Love," and the title track. The set also includes some Ely gems, as well, in "Crazy Lemon," "She Leaves You Where You Are," and "Maria." The latter album in this set is one of the finest live records to ever come out of Texas -- perhaps because it was recorded in England while Ely and the band were on tour opening for the Clash in 1979. He had something to prove to the punters, and he dealt it hot, hard, and fast. From the Jerry Lee Lewis-esque opener "Fingernails" and the swaggering rockabilly of "Annie's Been Workin On the Midnight Shift" to the hard Texas country of "Honky Tonk Masquerade," a rockin' cover of Hank Williams' "Honky Tonkin'," and brilliant revisions of Hancock's "Boxcars" and "She Never Spoke Spanish to Me," it's all killer no filler. ~ Thom Jurek